This blog discusses current weather, weather prediction, climate issues, and other topics

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Approach low and winds

Today was the kind of typical Seattle weather that has been nearly absent this year, wet, showery, and windy. Makes you feel normal again. A front is moving through now and the rain should back off soon. But the real fun is later tomorrow afternoon. A developing low center will approach tomorrow afternoon and move north of us around dinner time (see attached). As a result, rain will come back in late tomorrow morning and the winds should pick up during the afternoon...peaking between 6 and 10 PM. Some locations could see gusts to 50 mph, such as over the Sound and waters of NW Washington. As the low moves past strong westerly winds could develop in the Strait (see graphic).And did I mention the snow? Yes, the mountains will get loads of it...but tomorrow morning, a low freezing level and southeasterly winds could leave the western Kitsap in several inches of snow (graphic).

Snow just south of Pine Lake on the Sammamish Plateau (about 400 feet elevation, 30F). The snow is sticking to soil, melting on contact with cement or asphalt--so far. I can see that the big flakes are melting slower than the earlier flakes, and that soon my patio slab will have no heat in reserve to melt the onslaught.